We had four films release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.

All the Money in the World

Ridley Scott began his directing career on television in the mid-to-late 1960s. After an eight-year hiatus, he made his feature film debut with The Duellists in 1977. The film earned two BAFTA (British Academy of Film & Television Arts) nominations, beginning his long career filled with awards recognition. His next two films, Alien and Blade Runner, two of his early high-water marks and both defining films of their genres, were Oscar nominees with Alien winning the award for Best Visual Effects. He was again nominated, not personally, for his fourth film, Legend, but his fifth, Someone to Watch Over Me was ignored.

Two years later, he was back on Oscar’s favorite list with his two nominations for Black Rain. Yet, it would be his seventh film that finally landed him his first Best Director citation even if the film was unfairly excluded from the Best Picture slate. Thelma & Louise won the Oscar for Original Screenplay, but Scott went home empty-handed. Features eight (1492: Conquest of Paradise), nine (White Squall), and ten (G.I. Jane) were ignored, though the latter was considered a contender for Demi Moore’s performance.

Everything finally came together with his eleventh film, Gladiator, which secured twelve nominations, including his first in Best Picture and his second in Best Director. Although the film did manage to pick up five Oscars, including Best Picture, Scott was passed over for Steven Soderbergh for one of the two films he was nominated for that year, Traffic. His next film, Hannibal, was ignored, but he returned again with his thirteenth feature Black Hawk Down, which pulled off two Oscar wins out of four nominations, including Scott’s third for Best Director.

Matchstick Men, Kingdom of Heaven, and A Good Year followed without recognition from the Academy. Then came American Gangster, which brought him back once again for two Oscar nominations. Body of Lies and Robin Hood were also Oscar no-shows, but he was once again recognized in Best Visual Effects for Prometheus. Two more misses followed with The Counselor and Exodus: Gods and Kings, then were succeeded by his second-best Oscar showing to date for Best Picture nominee The Martian.

Scott has two films out this year, Alien: Covenant, which was relatively maligned by critics and All the Money in the World, which has gotten a much better reception. The former is still a Best Visual Effects contender even if it can’t muster up a nomination while the latter is poised to compete in only one category: Best Supporting Actor for Christopher Plummer, a last-minute substitution for the disgraced Kevin Spacey. The film picked up a surprising three nominations from the Golden Globes, which explains why it’s now a contender. The film had been quietly moving into Oscar season and had only picked up steam after the high profile Spacey replacement with Plummer, Scott, and Best Drama Actress nominee Michelle Williams on deck.

Ultimately, the film may have peaked too late. While the sexual assault revelations about Spacey may have bolstered the film’s visibility, ultimately the contest seems to be shaping up between a dozen or more features, with this film one of the weaker competitors. Still, Plummer is an acting legend and stepping into the role so late in the process and apparently dominating the film in short notice could appeal to Oscar voters quite a bit making him a strong potential nominee, and possibly the only for the film.

In the Fade

Noted German filmmaker Fatih Akin has performed quite well this year in the Oscar precursor derby with his terrorism revenge drama In the Fade starring Diane Kruger in an incredibly well received role.

The Golden Globes slotted the feature in the Best Foreign Language Film and it was on the final shortlist for the same category at the Oscars. Kruger won the Cannes award for Best Actress this past year while Akin was a nominee for the prestigious Palme d’Or. It won the foreign prizes from the Kansas City and New York Online critics while securing seven other nominations for the same category.

The film is currently tied for fifth place among foreign language film nominees so far this year behind The Square, BPM (Beats Per Minute), First They Killed My Father, and Thelma. The film benefits greatly from the fact that while those other four films were submitted by their respective countries, all but The Square failed to make the Academy’s shortlist. The two films it is tied with for seven Foreign Language Film nominations are also on the shortlist, Loveless and A Fantastic Woman. With all of that high profile recognition, I sincerely believe the film will be nominated for the Oscar, though a win seems unlikely at this juncture.

Molly’s Game

Aaron Sorkin made his feature debut in 1992 with his screenplay for A Few Good Men. That film earned four Oscar nominations, but his was not among them. His second feature, Malice was ignored by the Academy, but his third was not, but only barely. The American President picked up a single nomination for Comedy/Musical Score.

After that film in 1995, Sorkin took a break from the big screen and shifted over to television where he created the acclaimed sports comedy Sports Night for which he wrote or contributed 41 episodes. While that show was running the second of its two seasons on ABC, NBC had begun airing the presidential drama The West Wing, which ran for seven seasons and picked up 95 Emmy nominations and 26 wins. It was one of only then-three shows to ever win four Emmys for Best Drama Series alongside Hill Street Blues and L.A. Law (and now also Mad Men).

He continued creating for television with the 2006 launch of the short-lived Studio 60 on Sunset Strip, but returned to film in 2007 with Charlie Wilson’s War, which picked up a single nomination for Philip Seymour Hoffman in Supporting Actor. 2010 would be Sorkin’s watershed year with the Academy. That year, the screenplay he wrote for The Social Network became his first nomination and Oscar for his screenwriting work. The film was also nominated for seven other awards, of which it won two.

Moneyball followed in 2011 with Sorkin picking up his second nomination. The film earned six nominations, including Best Picture, but went home empty-handed. Taking another break from film, Sorkin returned to television with The Newsroom, his third short-lived series. Emmy still didn’t care for his work, ignoring him again, but his six Emmys from eleven nominations still shows they did appreciate him at one point. Back on film, Sorkin put together the script for Steve Jobs, which was heavily favored to earn him his third Oscar nomination, but he fell short, as did the film, which picked up only two nominations for acting.

Two years later, Sorkin is back, this time both writing and directing for the screen. Molly’s Game is the story of an Olympic-class skier who ran a high-stakes poker game. Although the premise seems something right up Oscar’s alley, the film has received mixed reviews since its release and while star Jessica Chastain has appeared in a handful of places for her work, Sorkin’s film has been poorly recognized. He did get a Golden Globe nomination for Screenplay, but considering Sorkin has only written one screenplay they haven’t nominated (Malice), it’s clear they have a liking for him.

That said, he is competing for an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay while Chastain is contending in Best Actress. The latter prize will be a significant challenge as the category is chock full of contenders, most of whom have a better shot than she. The former, on the other hand, benefits from a very sparse line-up, one sparse enough that a film few are talking about, this one, could still manage a nomination, possibly on Sorkin’s name alone.

Phantom Thread

In a 21-year career, director Paul Thomas Anderson has made a scant eight pictures. While he’s moving more quickly than Stanley Kubrick, he’s not the prolific filmmaker that many other current artists are. The one distinction Anderson has is that he picks the projects he wants and takes his time. Like Kubrick, Anderson tackles modestly unusual subjects and takes them to incredible levels. Of his eight films, all but two have earned Oscar nominations so far. Those films, Hard Eight and Punch-Drunk Love are anomalies.

You may note that I include Phantom Thread in his eight-film filmography and don’t specifically exclude it as an Oscar nominee. That’s because there is little likelihood that the film doesn’t come away with a minimum of two nominations and potentially five or more. The two almost-guaranteed Oscar nominations at this point are Daniel Day-Lewis in Best Actor, in presumably his final screen role, and Best Costume Design, largely due to the fact that the film is about a costume designer.

Looking at his past history, it’s not hard to see why the film is assured these nominations. In 1997, his second feature was a critical smash. It picked up two acting nominations (Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore) as well as as screenwriting nomination for Anderson. His 1999 follow-up, Magnolia, also pulled in three Oscar nominations. This time a single one was for acting (Tom Cruise), one was for writing (Anderson’s second), and the other was for Original Song. Once again, the film went home without a trophy.

This was followed by his fourth and final film not to earn an Oscar nomination, Punch-Drunk Love, with There Will Be Blood becoming Anderson’s biggest Oscar success to date. Eight Oscar nominations were given to the film about an early oil tycoon with Day-Lewis winning the Oscar for Best Actor and Robert Elswit taking the prize for Best Cinematography. Anderson was nominated for producing, directing, and writing the film. It took five years for his next film to hit the cineplex and like his second and third, he picked up three Oscar nominations along the way without a win. Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams were all nominated for acting. This was the first of his Oscar-nominated films for which he was not cited.

His lowest Oscar total came in 2014 with his film Inherent Vice. Anderson picked up a sixth nomination, his fourth for writing, and the film was also nominated for Best Costume Design. That brings us to present, three years later. Phantom Thread has earned a lot of acclaim even though it came out late in the process. His last two films weren’t considered Oscar slam dunks, but still managed to place. That means Phantom Thread, better received than either of those two films, could do quite well with Oscar.

Alongside the aforementioned two Oscar categories, other places its sure to figure are Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Lesley Manville), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, and, if the film is a major hit with Oscar voters, Best Production Design. The film stands a high chance of picking up three of these nominations, Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Original Score; and a better-than-average chance for a citation in Best Film Editing. Cinematography will hinge on an American Society of Cinematographers nomination, Production Design will require unbridled support among Oscar voters, and Best Supporting Actress will require the film to outperform expectations while knocking off a number of prominent contenders in that category.

Best Director would be a strong possibility if the category weren’t so overstocked with contenders, including three minority directors whose work this year was among the most celebrated and whose exclusion might cause a bit of a backlash: Jordan Peele, Greta Gerwig, and Luca Guadagnino. Still, Anderson is a popular Oscar player even if he’s only ever scored one Best Director nomination. It’s possible they just don’t love him even if they admire his films and the performances he pulls from his actors along with their production qualities.